WEBVTT 00:00.450 --> 00:06.150 A lot of people get surprised when the security plus covers the concept of wireless access points because 00:06.550 --> 00:13.200 whaps while they certainly do have some security issues we tend to not zero in on just the wireless 00:13.200 --> 00:15.410 access points when we're talking about that. 00:15.420 --> 00:21.060 And unfortunately that's a mistake because there's a lot of issues particularly with your wireless signal 00:21.060 --> 00:23.700 that's getting out that are real security issues. 00:23.700 --> 00:27.570 So let's make sure we understand a couple of things before we get into deep. 00:27.660 --> 00:33.000 Now the most important thing I want to start off with is the idea of think enterprise. 00:33.000 --> 00:38.490 Now what I've got here in front of me is a good old home wireless access point but it's actually a lot 00:38.490 --> 00:40.910 more than a wireless access point. 00:41.040 --> 00:45.150 If you take a look at this guy you'll see he's actually a built in router. 00:45.240 --> 00:48.720 You see these in people's homes and in small offices all the time. 00:48.810 --> 00:54.800 They're great little boxes but when we're talking about real security we move into a whole other world. 00:54.810 --> 01:00.180 So what I have here is some wireless access points that are a little bit more serious when it comes 01:00.180 --> 01:03.110 to dealing with enterprises. 01:03.150 --> 01:05.480 First one I want to talk about is this beastie. 01:05.580 --> 01:08.100 So this beastie is a wireless access point. 01:08.100 --> 01:14.280 This is a way not to steal the Cisco wireless access point it's actually just been retired here total 01:14.280 --> 01:15.330 seminars. 01:15.330 --> 01:18.970 Now this is what we call a thick client. 01:18.990 --> 01:22.540 This is a standalone wireless access point. 01:22.620 --> 01:31.300 When you take a look at a beast like that what you're talking about is a device that we have to configure 01:31.300 --> 01:37.630 by itself so if I've got three of these up there I've got to go into each one they all have web interfaces. 01:37.630 --> 01:39.660 I'm going to go to each one of these guys. 01:39.790 --> 01:46.480 I'm going to do whatever configuration I need to do and that is a great example of a standalone or a 01:46.810 --> 01:47.920 fat client. 01:47.920 --> 01:51.300 Sometimes you hear the term thick client as well. 01:51.340 --> 01:55.570 What's a little bit more common today in the enterprise environment is something like this. 01:57.430 --> 02:00.700 So what this is is a wireless access point. 02:00.880 --> 02:08.930 It's a lot smaller this type of wireless access point is very different from that big thick client. 02:08.950 --> 02:11.980 This is what we're going to call a thin client. 02:12.010 --> 02:17.130 You don't go into this guy and configure him through a web page. 02:17.140 --> 02:21.790 This guy has to be handled through a controller so it's controller based. 02:21.820 --> 02:27.130 These are actually very very convenient because what I can do a lot of times if I'm setting up a wireless 02:27.220 --> 02:30.700 network for office I'm going to be using the same SS ID. 02:30.880 --> 02:35.830 I'm going to be bouncing around different channels so each wireless access point has got a good Cris 02:35.830 --> 02:40.910 signal and I want to configure all these guys we call them hockey pucks you hear that term quite a bit. 02:41.050 --> 02:43.630 And I want to configure them all at once. 02:43.690 --> 02:44.820 So what we'll do. 02:44.820 --> 02:51.160 Like here told the seminars There's a company called Ubiquiti love you Ubiquiti that has a wonderful 02:51.160 --> 02:54.850 powerful tool I buy a number of these hockey pucks. 02:54.850 --> 03:02.140 I place them properly and then I plug them in to a switch and through one control or one piece of software 03:02.410 --> 03:04.810 I set them all up simultaneously. 03:04.810 --> 03:11.350 When you've got a lot of wireless access points the hassle of going through a whole bunch of thick clients 03:11.530 --> 03:16.340 versus just one little thin client controller is much much better. 03:16.390 --> 03:17.090 OK. 03:17.580 --> 03:25.350 So whether you have a fat client a thick client or a thin client a hockey puck you have to deal with 03:25.350 --> 03:26.760 the issue of antennas. 03:26.770 --> 03:32.640 Now if you'll notice pretty much all of these devices have built in antennas ready to go. 03:32.730 --> 03:35.730 And for most of us these antennas are absolutely fine. 03:35.730 --> 03:39.660 This guy here doesn't look like it but he's actually gotten intended to. 03:39.660 --> 03:46.560 However if you need too many of these wireless access points have the ability to take an external antenna 03:46.560 --> 03:48.350 like this little guy I've got right here. 03:50.050 --> 03:52.570 Put that up there so you guys can look at it. 03:52.720 --> 03:58.030 The idea behind external antennas is that sometimes the built in antennas that come with a wireless 03:58.030 --> 04:04.810 access point don't provide enough signal and signal strength is a big deal with these when we're talking 04:04.810 --> 04:06.640 about signal strength. 04:06.670 --> 04:10.140 We use the term decibels or D-B. 04:10.150 --> 04:15.790 So I don't want to get into a big deciples discussion because all you radio guys are going to jump out 04:15.790 --> 04:19.590 of your videos and beat me up because I'm not a radio guy. 04:19.600 --> 04:25.980 The bottom line is when we're talking about BVI what we're talking about is think about like a boost. 04:26.140 --> 04:32.960 How good of a signal does this device have without that antenna or with a built in antenna versus me 04:33.060 --> 04:34.920 adding a stronger antenna. 04:34.920 --> 04:38.920 So in general a larger decibel value is better. 04:38.940 --> 04:41.010 And that's really important for the exam. 04:41.220 --> 04:46.850 OK so next thing I want to talk about are the different physical antenna types. 04:51.060 --> 04:54.060 There's a lot of I mean they all just look like little sticks right. 04:54.060 --> 04:56.060 Well there's actually a lot more to it than that. 04:56.250 --> 05:02.070 It has to do with how the signal is presented so let's go through the basic and genotypes First of all 05:03.190 --> 05:06.130 we have what's called an omni or an omni directional 05:10.350 --> 05:14.760 an omni directional basically looks like a big basketball. 05:14.790 --> 05:18.180 So the signal goes in every possible direction. 05:18.180 --> 05:24.630 You'll see these used out of doors in very very large like in a basketball court or something like that 05:25.440 --> 05:30.160 because everybody no matter which directions point he needs a signal. 05:30.170 --> 05:36.940 Secondly we have what's called a dipole. 05:36.950 --> 05:41.270 Now this little these little entities here are actually dipoles. 05:41.500 --> 05:46.110 When we say a dipole actually has two little antennas built in this it looks like one antenna. 05:46.120 --> 05:47.410 But there's really two. 05:47.740 --> 05:53.330 A dipole makes basically take a bagel and then stomp on it. 05:53.800 --> 05:57.580 And that's what a dipole signal is dipoles have some real big benefits. 05:57.580 --> 06:03.490 Number one they're really good if you're just trying to shoot around a single floor or if you're just 06:03.490 --> 06:09.190 trying to hit a single level or a deck in a ship or something like that. 06:09.280 --> 06:15.100 The other nice thing about dipoles if look right here you'll see these dipoles always are bendy like 06:15.100 --> 06:15.630 this. 06:15.820 --> 06:21.250 And the reason they do that is because a lot of times especially with something like this by little 06:21.250 --> 06:26.870 adjustments I could hit maybe of not only the floor I'm on but maybe a second floor as well. 06:27.040 --> 06:35.120 So that's why dipoles are extremely common next are what we call directionals now a directional shoots 06:35.120 --> 06:41.180 out a really long beam so think about like a lighthouse and how a lighthouse shoots out a really long 06:41.240 --> 06:42.820 individual beam. 06:42.860 --> 06:49.670 There are two different types of directionals that we'll see first is going to be what we call a yagi 06:50.540 --> 06:56.300 yagis look like the antennas used to see on tops of people houses and they're designed to pick up and 06:56.300 --> 06:59.180 send a very very pointed signal. 06:59.180 --> 07:03.780 Now if you really want to go crazy about it then we can add what are called pair of bollix. 07:03.830 --> 07:09.470 So they look like little radar dishes and these things are usually even more powerful than yagis in 07:09.470 --> 07:13.030 general and they're designed for very very long distances. 07:13.280 --> 07:18.680 There's some really interesting competitions where using these types of antennas they want to see who 07:18.680 --> 07:21.900 can shoot the furtherest 10:42 distance. 07:21.900 --> 07:25.830 Now they're in the hundreds of miles and they have to shoot from mountaintop to mountaintop. 07:25.830 --> 07:27.360 Yeah they're pretty nerdy. 07:27.530 --> 07:28.010 OK. 07:28.220 --> 07:34.390 There is one more type of antenna that kind of directional and kind of omni and that's called a patch 07:38.630 --> 07:42.690 a patch is half of an omni. 07:42.770 --> 07:47.940 So what we're looking at is take that sphere and basically cut it in half. 07:48.020 --> 07:54.080 You can even have dipole type patches that will shoot basically half a dipole. 07:54.080 --> 07:56.510 The idea behind these is that these are great. 07:56.510 --> 08:03.680 In fact this guy right here is a patch antenna I can bolt him onto a wall in a office and it'll shoot 08:03.680 --> 08:08.580 out a big signal in one direction and virtually no signal at all at the other direction. 08:08.780 --> 08:13.880 So if I've got an exterior wall and I know what people in the parking lot trying to get into my wireless 08:13.880 --> 08:18.340 network patches are extremely common. 08:18.910 --> 08:20.660 OK. 08:20.750 --> 08:25.930 The idea behind antennas like this is that you have to place them. 08:26.180 --> 08:29.920 So the questions that you're going to see in the security plus are actually pretty trivial. 08:29.960 --> 08:36.800 So if you're doing something in a big basketball stadium you'd probably use an omni If you're outdoors 08:36.950 --> 08:43.310 you're probably going to be using some form of dipole if you're going to be placing things against walls. 08:43.310 --> 08:44.540 Look for a patch. 08:44.690 --> 08:49.110 And if you ever have to shoot long distances in particular between buildings and such. 08:49.310 --> 08:54.920 You're always going to be using some form of directional either a yagi or a parabolic. 08:54.920 --> 08:59.210 Also keep in mind that with yagis anything that's directional they actually have to be pointed to each 08:59.210 --> 08:59.710 other. 08:59.810 --> 09:04.070 So don't be surprised if somebody says oh point that to the left or point that to the right so you're 09:04.070 --> 09:06.220 always thinking in terms of direction. 09:06.860 --> 09:07.480 All right. 09:07.580 --> 09:14.180 Now with a good understanding of antennas we've got a good start in terms of our security good antenna 09:14.180 --> 09:19.850 placement controls the signal and make sure that we're not putting it in places where naughty people 09:19.850 --> 09:24.200 can and that's the most important thing to remember what we're talking about the different types of 09:24.200 --> 09:25.200 antennas. 09:25.610 --> 09:30.910 Now I want to stop for a minute and talk about something that's completely different still and wireless. 09:30.980 --> 09:33.330 Let's take a moment and talk about band selection. 09:37.310 --> 09:45.320 The ATO 2:11 standard has two different bands the 2.4 gigahertz band and the five gigahertz band. 09:45.460 --> 09:51.110 Now when we're talking about the bands you're going to use it really boils down to the technology that 09:51.110 --> 09:56.570 you want and the relative speeds that you want and how crowded things are. 09:56.570 --> 10:02.630 So what I'm using is a Wi-Fi analyzer built into my phone right here and I'd like to start by just taking 10:02.630 --> 10:06.410 a look on this phone and look how crowded everything is. 10:06.410 --> 10:14.230 This is a mess of the 2.4 gigahertz band now 2.4 gigahertz is fine for older 10:52 technologies. 10:14.360 --> 10:20.090 But the real excitement is when you watch it as I switch over as we go into the five gigahertz band 10:20.390 --> 10:27.020 now in this case the 5 gigahertz band isn't nearly as crowded and especially with technologies like 10:27.050 --> 10:32.750 10:52 a c you're pretty much going to want to go to the five gigahertz band every now and then you'll 10:32.750 --> 10:37.550 see somebody supporting 2.4 and that's if somebody comes in with a really old laptop or something like 10:37.550 --> 10:37.790 that. 10:37.790 --> 10:40.430 So five gigahertz band is where it's at. 10:40.490 --> 10:47.880 The challenge with the five gigahertz band is how do you deal with your channel with now with 2.4 gigahertz. 10:47.960 --> 10:53.540 You have very specific channels and on wireless access points you can often set that channel very calm 10:53.570 --> 10:58.280 today with the more common standards in the five gigahertz band. 10:58.280 --> 11:05.450 It's rare to run into wireless access points that allow you to manually configure the channel and there's 11:05.450 --> 11:06.720 a good reason for that. 11:07.830 --> 11:13.230 A wireless access point today has auto sensing features and if it's senses that a particular channel 11:13.230 --> 11:17.370 is really really crowded it's just going to go ahead go someplace else. 11:17.370 --> 11:22.080 And we like that feature so automated channels on five gigahertz is common. 11:22.080 --> 11:27.680 However there's something else that is not common and that is channel with now. 11:27.720 --> 11:33.420 When you take a look at the different types of channels in the five gigahertz band you have 10 megahertz 11:33.420 --> 11:42.240 wide 20 maigre it's wide 40 big or it's wide and ginge and in general the wider the channel the better 11:42.240 --> 11:46.740 the throughput you're gonna get it specially when you're using more advanced technologies like memo 11:47.010 --> 11:49.010 with ATo 2:11 a c. 11:49.050 --> 11:55.140 The downside is and let's take a look at the screen one more time is that if you take a look here you 11:55.140 --> 11:57.420 can see where it says total Wi-Fi studio. 11:57.540 --> 11:59.950 Look how wide that channel is. 11:59.970 --> 12:05.760 We've done that on purpose because when I originally set this up there wasn't anybody else in here and 12:05.760 --> 12:07.230 I had this amazing throughput. 12:07.230 --> 12:13.620 So and as I'm watching this I realize that I'm going to have to go into my wireless access points and 12:13.620 --> 12:19.620 narrow that channel with so that they can find an easier place to auto hop into that isn't quite so 12:19.620 --> 12:20.640 terribly crowded. 12:21.550 --> 12:26.550 So that's what we need to cover for the security plus on wireless access points for me. 12:26.550 --> 12:31.660 Number one I'm always going to prefer a thin controller based client over a fat client especially if 12:31.660 --> 12:34.190 I have two or more wireless access points. 12:34.450 --> 12:40.210 I'm going to take a lot of time not only selecting my antennas but also making sure that the antenna 12:40.240 --> 12:44.950 placement supports just my users and nobody else. 12:44.950 --> 12:50.560 And third I'm going to take the time with my band selection and my channel with to make sure that I've 12:50.560 --> 12:54.090 got the best possible signal I can get.